Saul, John 1942- (John W. Saul, John W. Saul, III, John Woodruff Saul, III, John Saul, III)

PERSONAL:

Born February 25, 1942, in Pasadena, CA; son of John Woodruff, Jr., and Adeline Elizabeth Saul; partner of Michael Sack. Education: Attended Antioch College, 1959-60, Montana State University, 1961-62, and San Francisco State College (now University), 1963-65. Politics: "Mostly Democrat." Religion: "Sort of Swedenborgian."

ADDRESSES:

Home—Bellevue, WA, and Maui, HI. Agent—Jane Rotrosen, 318 E. 51st St., New York, NY 10022. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, playwright, actor, lecturer, educator, and novelist. Spent several years traveling about the United States, writing and supporting himself by odd jobs, including technical writer, automobile rental agent, and office assistant; worked for a drug and alcohol program in Seattle, WA; Tellurian Communities, Inc., director, 1976-78, member of board of governors; Seattle Theater Arts, Seattle, director, 1978-80. Northwest Writers Conference, lecturer; Maui Writers Conference, lecturer. Vice president of Chester Woodruff Foundation.

MEMBER:

Authors Guild, Authors League of America.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Lifetime Achievement Award, Northwest Writers Conference.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Suffer the Children (also see below), Dell (New York, NY), 1977.

Punish the Sinners (also see below), Dell (New York, NY), 1978.

Cry for the Strangers (also see below), Dell (New York, NY), 1979.

Comes the Blind Fury, Dell (New York, NY), 1980.

When the Wind Blows, Dell (New York, NY), 1981.

The God Project (also see below), Bantam (New York, NY), 1982.

Nathaniel (also see below), Bantam (New York, NY), 1984.

Brainchild (also see below), Bantam (New York, NY), 1985.

Hellfire, Bantam (New York, NY), 1986.

The Unwanted, Bantam (New York, NY), 1987.

The Unloved, Bantam (New York, NY), 1988.

The Fear Factor, Bantam (New York, NY), 1988.

Creature, Bantam (New York, NY), 1989.

Sleepwalk, Bantam (New York, NY), 1990.

Second Child, Bantam (New York, NY), 1990.

Darkness, Bantam (New York, NY), 1991.

Shadows, Bantam (New York, NY), 1992.

Guardian, Bantam (New York, NY), 1993.

The Homing, Fawcett Columbine (New York, NY), 1994.

Three Complete Novels (contains Brainchild, Nathaniel, and The God Project), Avenel, 1995.

Black Lightning, Fawcett Columbine (New York, NY), 1995.

Three Terrifying Bestselling Novels (contains Suffer the Children, Punish the Sinners, and Cry for the Strangers), Wings Books (New York, NY), 1996.

The Presence, Fawcett Columbine (New York, NY), 1997.

In the Shadow of Evil: The Handkerchief, Fawcett Crest (New York, NY), 1997.

The Right Hand of Evil, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1999.

Nightshade, Ballantine (New York, NY), 2000.

The Manhattan Hunt Club, Ballantine (New York, NY), 2001.

Midnight Voices, Ballantine (New York, NY), 2002.

Black Creek Crossing, Ballantine (New York, NY), 2004.

Perfect Nightmare, Ballantine (New York, NY), 2005.

In the Dark of the Night, Ballantine (New York, NY), 2006.

The Devil's Labyrinth, Ballantine (New York, NY), 2007.

"THE BLACKSTONE CHRONICLES" SERIES

An Eye for An Eye: The Doll, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1997.

Twist of Fate: The Locket, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1997.

Ashes to Ashes: The Dragon's Flame, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1997.

Day of Reckoning: The Stereoscope, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1997.

Asylum, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1997.

OTHER

Also author, with Ron Daum, Ann Combs, and Mike Sack, of musical play Empress.

ADAPTATIONS:

Cry for the Strangers and "The Blackstone Chronicles" have been adapted for television.

SIDELIGHTS:

Best-selling horror novelist John Saul has produced a suspenseful thriller every year since 1977, but there is nothing mysterious about his rise to success. Saul, best known for eerie tales set in isolated locales and for high-tech novels bordering on science fiction, has become especially popular among young adults who relish the author's adolescent characters as much as his frightening narratives. Today, with over twenty-three million copies of his novels in print, Saul continues to please his legion of fans with the successful formula he created early in his career.

"Saul's works are remarkably consistent in their structure, subject matter, and entertainment value; a reader who likes one of them will very probably like all of the others," observed Gary Westfahl in the St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost and Gothic Writers. "The typical elements include vulnerable young people, an isolated small town, an adult outsider struggling to understand things, and some nascent or renascent evil that repeatedly threatens the protagonists." The critic added: "Saul's novels always work, just as horror stories have always worked, and they work at a powerful visceral level even when one's rational mind is howling in protest."

As a youngster growing up in Whittier, California, Saul enjoyed a normal childhood. When the question comes up, the author denies having lived through anything as bizarre as the experiences his young characters confront. Instead, Saul directed his youthful energies toward school and recalled that, even as a youth, he was very focused on writing to please his audience. "If you had to write 300 words on a subject," he told Andrea Chambers in People magazine interview, "300 words was exactly what they got. I sat there and counted them." Although Saul continued to hone his writing skills while in college by penning a "technically correct" twentyline poem every day, after five years he left school without a degree.

College was followed by a series of odd jobs, including stints as a technical writer and temporary office helper. Whatever he did by day, at night the aspiring author continued working on his unpublished books and stories. "Between the ages of thirty and thirty-five you really start to lose your dignity badly when you say you've been trying to be a writer for fifteen years," he admitted to Chambers. "I finally thought that by the time I was thirty-five, I would no longer be a struggling writer, I'd be a failed writer."

After a number of works had been rejected by publishers, including comic murder mysteries and one novel about the citizens' band radio craze of the 1970s, Saul finally received a suggestion that paid off. A New York literary agent mentioned the tremendous popularity of horror novels, so Saul visited a drugstore paperback rack for ideas, wrote an outline for Suffer the Children, signed a contract for the book and produced it in less than a month. "I'd never really tried writing horror before," Saul recalled in a Publishers Weekly interview with Robert Dahlin, "but when I began, I found it fascinating. There were times I was writing certain scenes that I had to stop because I even scared myself, but I'm convinced that it helps to be a total coward when it comes to writing a book like this. If you can't scare yourself, how can you scare anyone else?"

Saul's first novel, about a dysfunctional family in a small New England town whose disturbed daughter becomes a suspect in the gruesome and mysterious disappearance of several of the town's children, became an instant best seller. Suffer the Children introduced the themes which have dominated almost all of the works that followed, including the use of children and teenagers as victims or perpetrators of crime and a marked ambiguity which leaves the reader uncertain whether supernatural forces are at work, or whether the characters' troubles are all in their mind. Despite the book's popularity, reviewers lambasted Saul's exceedingly violent tale. Upon the book's release, a Publishers Weekly reviewer criticized the novel for its "graphically violent scenes against children which are markedly tasteless."

The brutality of Saul's first novel was not matched in his later work. The author made a concentrated effort to focus less on violent acts and instead depended on mood to frighten readers. "After [Suffer the Children], my books got progressively less violent because I really saw no reason for gore for gore's sake," Saul explained in Publishers Weekly. He added, "It seems to me that what makes a book good is the tension in wondering what's going to happen next." Saul did not, however, stray too far from the formula that had propelled him to the top of the best-seller lists. His next novel, Punish the Sinners, involved bizarre sex rites within an order of priests. Once again, Saul was criticized by a Publishers Weekly reviewer for opening the proceedings "with a dual meat-cleaver slaying" and then writing "with cleaver in hand throughout." But once again, despite negative reviews, Saul's book enjoyed tremendous success and was followed by three more books with similar themes, all of which enjoyed equal success. In a typical plot, the ghost of a blind girl who was taunted and killed by classmates one hundred years earlier returns to seek revenge on the young descendants of her tormenters in Comes the Blind Fury.

Explaining his reasons for featuring children in his novels, Saul told Publishers Weekly: "Children are very imaginative. They share a lot of fear based on the unknown, or what might happen in the dark. I can remember everything that ever happened to me since I was three, and that certainly helps me write from a child's point of view. Also, children are very appealing, both as villains and as victims. It's hard to stay mad at a kid, no matter what he does."

Saul ventured into a new realm with his sixth book, The God Project, his first hardcover publication. "I'd begun to feel I was repeating myself, and I needed something new," he told Dahlin. Instead of focusing on ghosts from the past as he had in his previous novels, Saul looked toward the future and produced a "techno-thriller" about a secret government project called CHILD. The project involves the genetic engineering of unsuspecting women's fetuses. Once born, the children have amazing powers of regeneration, but when the project backfires, they begin to die. Discussing the plot with a Detroit News writer, Saul said: "I feel that the experiments in genetic engineering ought to be going on … but I'm also convinced that it can't be done with too much care. There is talk now about adjusting human beings genetically to fit certain job slots. Do you have to go any further than that for a scary idea?"

At the time it was released, Saul described The God Project as his most ambitious undertaking. "It seems as though I'm starting all over again," he told Dahlin. "I feel just like a first novelist waiting around and wondering how my book will do, but I'm looking forward to reading the professional criticism—constructive criticism, I hope—that will be written about it." The book, which Saul described in Publishers Weekly as containing "very little overt violence," didn't achieve quite the same level of popularity as some of his earlier books, but it did mark an expansion in the author's scope of themes and topics. Westfahl wrote: "Beginning with The God Project, Saul has more often focused on advanced scientific menaces; since he evidences little knowledge of or interest in science, Saul's approach to scientific horror has not been noticeably different."

In 1985's Brainchild, Saul combined the centuries-old revenge plot formulas of his earlier works with the futuristic slant of The God Project. The result is the story of Alex Lonsdale, a teenager who suffers brain damage in a car accident and is operated on by renowned surgeon Raymond Torres, a fourth-generation Mexican-American whose ancestors were murdered when America acquired California in 1850. Although young Alex's recovery seems complete, his strange behavior disturbs his friends and family, who begin to suspect Alex's involvement when a series of brutal murders takes place. When Torres's hatred for gringos is revealed, the plot's revenge elements come into play.

Not deviating from the successful premise of a ghost seeking revenge for the deeds of years past, Saul wrote Hellfire in 1986. Set in an isolated Massachusetts town, the story revolves around a wealthy family's plans to transform their empty mill into a shopping mall. When their renovations go awry, the family matriarch fears they have roused the spirit of a girl who died there in a fire one hundred years before. True to his formula, Saul includes several young characters, including an amiable girl named Beth and her spoiled, snobby cousin, Tracy. A Publishers Weekly reviewer found "an inevitability about much of the novel," but conceded that "the bloody, tantalizing plot rushes forward, the setting and historical background are well-drawn and Tracy is memorably, startlingly nasty."

A wealthy family stirring old resentments is also at the center of The Unloved. The plot centers around elderly Helena Devereaux, who lures her estranged son and his family to her estate on a South Carolina island, where her sweet-natured daughter, Marguerite, cares for the cantankerous old woman. Helena finally dies, but her control extends beyond the grave in the form of a malicious will that ties her children to her estate. When frequent sightings of her ghost occur and the formerly pleasant Marguerite begins behaving more and more like her mother, the plot takes an expected turn into the supernatural. "Saul plays out the expected Southern gothic but does so with empathy for the lives caught in the Devereaux web, from the relatives and friends to the dispirited townspeople who are dependent on the family for their very homes," remarked a Publishers Weekly reviewer.

Saul's twelfth novel, Creature, mixes modern-day headlines about steroid abuse with the mad scientist motif of classic horror novels such as Frankenstein. In Saul's modern twist, the mad scientist is Dr. Marty Ames, an employee of the TarrenTech conglomerate, who poses as a high-tech athletic trainer at a local high school in order to conduct clandestine experiments upon unsuspecting jocks. In his attempt to create the perfect physical specimen, Ames accidentally turns his subjects into unmanageable, violent freaks. Critics weren't especially impressed with Saul's adaptation of the classic horror novel premise. "While Saul's storytelling is energetic and atmospheric, it cannot mask the direction of this thinly drawn and predictable plot," commented Marc Shapiro in Inside Books. A Publishers Weekly reviewer also found the story formulaic, but added "it should please the author's fans as it continues Saul's focus on children as the vehicles and victims of unnatural forces."

Saul's next novel, Sleepwalk, contained themes and a plot line similar to Creature. Once again, a sleepy town is the setting for a mysterious experiment on teenagers, but this time Saul has introduced an extra dimension through the use of Native American folklore. The characters include Judith Sheffield, a math teacher who first suspects that the students in her New Mexican hometown are in danger, teenaged Jed, and his Native American grandfather, Brown Eagle. A Publishers Weekly critic praised the book for its "compelling scenes in which Brown Eagle introduces Jed to Native American mysticism" and its climax, which includes "a spectacular display of man restoring nature to its rightful place—after having almost destroyed everything in the process."

Saul's novel Second Child appeared on the New York Times best-seller list just one month after publication, proving once again the author's bankable popularity. The story, featuring a teenage villain, centers around fifteen-year-old Teri MacIver, who is living with her biological father after a fire kills her mother and stepfather. What Teri's father doesn't know is that Teri was responsible for the blaze that killed her mother and that she has come to live with him in order to propagate more evil. She finds the perfect victim in her shy, unstable half-sister, Melissa. An element of the supernatural is added when Melissa appears to become unknowingly manipulated by the ghost of D'Arcy, a young maidservant who committed hideous acts of violence one hundred years ago. Critics gave Second Child a reception typical of a Saul novel: "With a tired plot and boring dialogue, John Saul never deviates from the predictable in his new novel," wrote a Detroit News and Free Press reviewer.

Reviews were no better, but sales were just as good, for Saul's 1991 effort, Darkness. The story focused this time on a group of teenagers suffering from disturbing nightmares about a menacing old man. The prologue, described by a Publishers Weekly reviewer as "wonderfully scary," features the sacrifice of a newborn baby performed by none other than the Dark Man of the teens' dreams. Despite the novel's promising start, the mystery of the Dark Man is "revealed halfway through the book," continued the reviewer, who found Saul's ending "cozily sentimental."

In his 1992 novel, Shadows, Saul again features school-age children prominently. At the center of the story is a school for gifted children called The Academy, where a diabolical experiment is being carried out without anyone's knowledge. When strange things begin to happen, the bright students realize they are in danger of being destroyed by the evil presence behind the experiment and must join forces to escape the terror of The Academy. With all the elements of a successful Saul novel, Shadows quickly became a best seller.

High anticipation attended the 1997 publication of Saul's six-part series, "The Blackstone Chronicles." Set in a small New Hampshire town, the series revolves around mysterious—and sometimes deadly—gifts sent to the town's prominent citizens. "The only true innovation in Saul's fiction, the six-part Blackstone saga, is also his only disaster," contended Westfahl. "Lacking any familiarity with or feel for short fiction, Saul could not build up sufficient energy in each vignette, yet their separability ensured that the series lacked any cumulative impact as well."

Black Lightning breaks away from Saul's signature theme of danger to children to tell the story of a serial killer who makes his presence known from beyond the grave. Richard Kraven, the killer, has been apprehended after his spree of brutal torture slayings, and is set to die in the electric chair. Attending the execution is Anne Jeffers, the reporter who helped capture Kraven and who pushed for his execution. As Kraven is dying, Anne's husband Glen has a serious heart attack. Glen recovers from his cardiac problems, but Anne begins to notice changes in his behavior. Two years later, another series of murders begins, all of which have the distinctive style of Kraven's killings. Worse, Glen begins to have blackouts that coincide with the new murders. Soon, Anne begins to think that Kraven's spirit has somehow managed to invade her husband's body, and that the killer has reached beyond his own death to unleash a new round of mayhem. Anne knows that Kraven had a particular grudge against her, and she knows that if Kraven has somehow bridged the divide between life and death, she will soon be a target for his vengeance. "Fast pacing and skillful narrative misdirection make this supernatural thriller one of Saul's … best," remarked a Publishers Weekly critic. Booklist reviewer Ray Olson called the novel "one of [Saul's] better efforts."

The Manhattan Hunt Club explores how wealth and influence can lead to conspiracy, abuse, and murder when those in power feel they are superior to the humans around them. Protagonist Jeff Converse, a college student, has been falsely accused and convicted of a vicious crime. Desperate to prove his innocence, Converse seems to have little hope. As he is being transferred to prison, he is inexplicably kidnapped and forced into the bleak labyrinth of tunnels below New York City. He soon finds out he is the newest target in a bizarre and deadly game played by Manhattan's richest citizens, businessmen, and civic leaders. The game involves a deadly contest in which the elite New Yorkers pursue a target through the shafts and tunnels below the subway system. Targets who make it to the surface survive and go free; those who are caught are horribly murdered and then stuffed, much as a trophy animal from a big-game hunt. Converse knows his only hope is to make it to the surface, but the obstacles are many, and the group of hunters is determined to add him to their expansive trophy room. While Converse's father and ex-girlfriend search for him above ground, in the darkness below, he must rally his wits and intellect to outmaneuver a determined collection of killers. In assessing the novel, Booklist reviewer Karen Hughes remarked: "This is an enjoyable and clever yarn, packed with plot twists, improbable conspiracies, and lots of two-faced characters." Library Journal contributor Craig Shufelt noted that "nonstop action keeps the book moving at a brisk pace." With this book, Saul "continues to deliver the same sleek pulp entertainment that he's been selling—in high numbers—since his debut" in 1977, observed a Publishers Weekly contributor.

Caroline, the protagonist of Midnight Voices, has recently lost her husband after he was brutally killed while jogging in New York's Central Park. Six months later, Caroline is still struggling with the emotional aftermath, and she is having trouble supporting herself and her two children. When she meets gentlemanly Tony, he seems like a caring and loving sort. After a short courtship, the two are married. Caroline and her children move into Tony's home in the ritzy Rockwell building. The rest of the building is populated by rich but eccentric residents. Caroline dismisses rumors that the other residents are actually witches, vampires, and sundry other dangerous and despicable creatures. Even when her daughter begins to hear voices in the walls at night, Caroline attributes it to natural causes. When another child in the building falls ill and disappears, Caroline's daughter begins to exhibit the same mysterious symptoms. Soon, Caroline realizes that if she is to save her family, she may have to start taking the outlandish stories about the Rockwell much more seriously. Booklist reviewer Regina Schroeder remarked that "this novel is deeply creepy right from the outset," as it opens with a detailed description of Caroline's husband's murder. Schroeder called the novel "good, drafty atmospheric horror stuff unafraid to indulge in not-at-all-subtle gory bits."

Addressing the overall impact of Saul's work, Westfahl asserted: "Horror is fundamentally a conservative genre, repeatedly urging people to follow the old rituals, obey the time-honored rules, and honor the ancient taboos, and devising horrific punishments for all those who dare to flout these strictures. It would only seem appropriate, then, for horror writers to ply their craft in a rigorously traditional fashion. And that is what Saul is careful to do. His stories starkly manipulate the foundational elements of scary stories as they have existed since the dawn of humanity."

Saul's astounding popularity has continued to grow in the face of some rather harsh criticism. One point about which critics have been especially contentious is Saul's tendency to feature young victims and villains, thereby making his novels especially attractive to young readers. Because of the disturbing subject matter he deals with, Saul has said he was reluctant, at first, to recommend them to a young audience. "Originally, I thought they were a bit strong for children, for anyone under 15," Saul said in a Publishers Weekly interview, "but since then, I've talked to school librarians who are happy with them. Young people like my books, and as it turns out, in this way I've introduced many of them to the act of reading. Librarians aren't concerned that any of my violence is going to affect children. They would rather have them reading, and these kids have told me they don't read the books for the violence. They read them for the plot."

Saul's fans continue to make each successive novel a best seller. "Hopefully," Saul told Dahlin, "each of my books is better than the last. Each gets rewritten more." Topics for future novels are unlimited in scope, since Saul has the ability to "find horror in the commonplace," he told Chambers. "In my books everything looks perfectly normal and wonderful at the beginning," he continued, "but there's some little thing that's wrong, and it gets out of control."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 46, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1988.

St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost and Gothic Writers, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1998.

Winter, Stanley, Dark Dreamers: Conversations with the Masters of Horror, Avon (New York, NY), 1990.

PERIODICALS

Advocate, August 28, 2001, Bruce C. Steele, "Fear and Loving in the Best-seller Rack," interview with John Saul, p. 44; July 9, 2002, review of Midnight Voices, p. 40.

Booklist, June 1, 1993, Ray Olson, review of Guardian, p. 1735; June 1, 1994, Ray Olson, review of The Homing, p. 1726; June 1, 1995, Ray Olson, review of Black Lightning, p. 1684; July, 1997, George Cohen, review of The Presence, p. 1776; March 15, 1999, review of The Presence, p. 1317; March 15, 1999, David Pitt, review of The Right Hand of Evil, p. 1261; March 15, 2000, Ray Olson, review of Nightshade, p. 1294; May 1, 2001, Kathleen Hughes, review of The Manhattan Hunt Club, p. 1595; May 1, 2002, Regina Schroeder, review of Midnight Voices, p. 1444; February 15, 2004, Ray Olson, review of Black Creek Crossing, p. 1004; July, 2005, Ray Olson, review of Perfect Nightmare, p. 1877; May 15, 2006, Ray Olson, review of In the Dark of the Night, p. 4.

Entertainment Weekly, November 14, 1997, Megan Harlan, review of The Presence, p. 85.

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 1989, review of Creature, p. 329; June 1, 1993, review of Guardian, p. 684; June 1, 1994 review of The Homing, p. 732; May 15, 2002, review of Midnight Voices, p. 696; June 15, 2005, review of Perfect Nightmare, p. 662.

Library Journal, August 1, 1993, A.M.B. Amantia, review of Guardian, p. 155; July 1, 1994, Marylaine Block, review of The Homing, p. 130; April 15, 2000, Patricia Altner, review of Nightshade, p. 124; August, 2001, Craig L. Shufelt, review of The Manhattan Hunt Club, p. 166.

Los Angeles Times, September 30, 1984, Kristiana Gregory, review of Nathaniel, p. 8.

Pacific Business News, July 13, 2001, Debbie Sokei, "John Saul," p. 2.

People, June 26, 1989, Andrea Chambers, "Careful Plotting for Success Lets Thriller Writer John Saul Enjoy all the Creature Comforts," profile of John Saul, p. 79; February 17, 1997, Lan N. Nguyen, "Serial Chiller," p. 35.

Publishers Weekly, April 25, 1977, review of Suffer the Children, p. 73; April 10, 1978, review of Punish the Sinners, p. 70; April 23, 1979, review of Cry for the Strangers, p. 79; April 11, 1980, review of Comes the Blind Fury, p. 75; June 12, 1981, Sally A. Lodge, review of When the Wind Blows, p. 52; June 25, 1982, review of The God Project, p. 104; August 13, 1982, "John Saul," p. 6; May 25, 1984, review of Nathaniel, p. 56; April 29, 1988, Penny Kaganoff, review of The Unloved, p. 72; March 10, 1989, Sybil Steinberg, review of Creature, p. 74; December 14, 1990, Penny Kaganoff, review of Sleepwalk, p. 62; April 12, 1991, Sybil Steinberg, review of Darkness, p. 45; June 21, 1993, review of Guardian, p. 84; May 30, 1994, review of The Homing, p. 35; May 29, 1995, review of Black Lightning, p. 66; July 24, 1995, review of The Homing, p. 60; July 28, 1997, review of The Presence, p. 55; April 12, 1999, review of The Right Hand of Evil, p. 51; May 21, 2001, review of The Manhattan Hunt Club, p. 78; May 20, 2002, review of Midnight Voices, p. 47; February 23, 2004, review of Black Creek Crossing, p. 56; July 11, 2005, review of Perfect Nightmare, p. 61; June 5, 2006, review of In the Dark of the Night, p. 33.

School Library Journal, December 1, 1995, Barbara Hawkins, review of Black Lightning, p. 144; April 1, 1998, Katherine Fitch, review of The Presence, p. 159.

Voice of Youth Advocates, December 1, 1983, review of Cry for the Strangers, p. 267; February 1, 1985, review of Nathaniel, p. 332.

ONLINE

John Saul Home Page,http://www.johnsaul.com (August 10, 2007).